How to Play Craps - This is where to Learn!

You're interested in craps, and you're looking for information about how to play craps online, right? Maybe not online craps in particular, but definitely how to play craps. It's an interesting game, and it's not like any other casino game. First, there are no cards involved, and second, it's about the most interactive game there is, where you roll the dice, not the dealer at the table. In a way, it's got some of what Baccarat has going for it, where the players can really participate in the game. Maybe that's one of the reasons that craps is such an exciting game to play and to watch.

So, if you want to know how to play craps, this is the page for you. We won't go into much detail about the rules here, because we've got a craps rules page on this site where that aspect of the game is discussed in more detail. We've also got a page on craps strategy, and craps betting, all of which are part of how to play craps, but this is the page where we'll discuss the basics. One of the things to know about when learning how to play craps is just a little of the history behind the game. That way, you'll have a good base of knowledge to start from.

Dice have been used for gambling for as long as historical records have been kept, and even before that, if archaeological evidence is anything to go by. Now don't get a picture in your head of the red plastic dice with the white dots on them, because the term dice used to refer to anything that was thrown down to make a prediction about anything or to decide the outcome of something. It used to be that Shaman and medicine men would throw specially marked sticks or bones onto the ground to make predictions about the future. It wasn't long before someone took that idea and made a game out of it where the throw of the dice decided the winner of the game, not the future of the tribe or the next crop's chance of success. At some point, knuckle bones of animals started to be used as “dice”. They're basically cube-shaped, and that gives you 6 sides, or six possible outcomes on one die. No longer did you need a fistful of sticks to play. The dice we know of today, were fist found in ancient Egypt, and have evolved from there, to the transparent plastic dice we know today.

The game that we know today as craps started back in the Middle Ages as a dice game played by the Arabs and called Azzahr, which basically means dice. When the Europeans started to learn how to play craps, they called it Hazard, which is as close as they could come to the original Arab name, and still meant something to those that were playing at the time. It is a kind of hazardous game to play...! Around this time, the English started referring to the lowest roll of the dice as Crabs, because crabs are pretty lowly creatures. The game was passed along to the French at this point, and when they brought it to the New World, the name gradually changed to Creps. It's not much of a leap to get from there to the name we have for the game now. So when you learn how to play craps, you'll know where the game's origins are.

But we can't stop there. The gambling wasn't legalized in Nevada until 1931, and that's when everyone and their dog got to learn how to play craps first hand. It's been one of the mainstays of every casino ever since then. Now that you know a bit about the history, we should tell you the basic premise of the game. Craps is is a game played with two dice, in rounds. The first roll in a round is called the “come out” roll and sometimes the a round will be end on the come out roll. If a dice total of 2, 3, 7, 11, or 12 is rolled on the come out roll, that's it; next shooter please. If any other number is rolled (4, 5, 6, 8, 9, or 10) that number is called the point. The dealer will place a white marker, sometimes called a puck, on the area of the table that designates that point so everyone can see and remember what it is. When this happens, the dice will continued to be rolled by the same shooter until the same total (point) is rolled again or a 7 is rolled. That's the way the game goes, so if you're really serious abut learning how to play craps, you should definitely visit the other pages on this site that are devoted to the rules, systems and strategy of this great dice game.